There are two sides to Chris Cain.
First and foremost, he’s a musician – a blues guitarist with an admirably workmanlike attitude towards his songs, and he speaks in a voice full of a particularly down-to-earth lack of pretence.Begin a conversation with him about his tours and his beginnings as a musician and you’ll find yourself met by a gruff, understated voice. “There was a lot of locking myself in the room with a record player,” he says of his origins. “That’s how I spent a lot of my younger life. I wouldn’t be talking to you if it wasn’t for guitar.”
But underneath the professional sheen to his answers, it’s also clear that Cain is a true lover of music, and he has a passion for the art form that has fuelled everything he has done over the years. Though he is perhaps best known for his 1990 record Cuttin’ Loose, he has released a bevy of accomplished works over the years and, through each and every song he has recorded, his overwhelming love of the blues is immediately apparent. He’s not someone who passively creates music: he’s someone who makes music, and in conversation it’s perfectly evident that there is nothing else he’d rather be doing.
“If you live long enough, you’re always the old guy who’s all-knowing and all-assuming,” Cain laughs. “I’m still playing the guitar at 60 and I still feel the fun that I felt when I was 12 – I’d come home from school, have a bowl of cereal and lock myself away and listen to B.B. King for hours.”
Ultimately, Cain argues that he hasn’t developed much since that initial point – in the best possible way, of course. “I’m still that same guy, still in my room trying to figure this stuff out,” he says. “It feels good to know in doing this that people are listening to the stuff I wanna do. People wanna hear it. It’s beautiful that anyone wants to hear it.”
But Cain has other passions too, namely our fair land Australia – a place that he is excited to visit once more. “There were people who took me into their homes when I first came to Australia and some [of the things] I tried there I tried for the first time. It was a wonderful experience for me. The beer is always wonderful. Australia’s the place I discovered Coopers and VB – I’m the president of all their fan clubs, I swear!”
Cain’s favourite word when discussing the topic of Australia is easily “beautiful”. Our music and musicians, our disparate personalities, our country: everything Cain mentions he does with a voice bursting with appreciation and love. He’s even a fan of our continent’s less sightly pleasures, and has the hardy attitude that one would expect from a man of the world. “The insects are super large but I think it’s worth it to see a huntsman,” he says. “I’ll take the trade – they can be so beautiful. The flying fox in Melbourne, did you know it comes in at 6’5” wingspan? I saw one land in a fig tree once.”
But it’s not just our flora and fauna that fascinates Cain. He’s also forever hypnotised by the quality of our musicianship. Hearing him talk about a range of Antipodean performers gives insight into the exuberance that he must have had as a boy locked away listening to B.B. King. That fire has not been snuffed out. “I got to tour with Mark Williams – I was playing one night in Broken Hill and he was just such an amazing singer. He knew how to go on the road and grind it out and do it beautifully.
“Jeff Lang, Chris Simmons… those fellas are just all powerful characters, great musicians and fun, wonderful people. It’s etched in my soul how comfortable I felt and how much I loved the people I was fortunate enough to meet in [Australia]. The fact I’ve gone back more than three times in my whole 60 years of being alive proves I love the place. My most powerful and fond memories are of stuff I did in Australia.
“I was really lucky,” he continues. “The first ever time I came, it was with people who were very, very kind and that first tour was the first place I heard a band play a tune I wrote. I played with all these Australian fellows and they played so great I went home and fired the band I had. These Aussie guys played my song so beautifully and with so much love, as soon as I landed I changed my band.
He takes a moment to reflect. “I felt this about every musician I ever met in Australia: they really know how to play something that can make you happy. Guys can rock a whole gigantic building. It’s the first place I ever saw anything like that, just an organic love for whatever style of music they play. And they play the hell out of it. If a band plays a little bit of something, they play it together and it’s beautiful.”
Ultimately, Cain has harsh words for anybody who uses the excuse of Australia’s isolation to get out of touring the country. “Anybody that says they don’t like the flight over there, well, they don’t know what they’re missing. They’re just a softy-softy pants.”
Chris Cain, as part of Sydney Blues And Roots Festival, plays Windsor Bowling And Sports Club, onSaturday October 29 / Sunday October 30.
